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Doing business 100 feet underground

SubTropolis, once an active limestone quarry in Kansas City, offers 6 million sq. ft. of rentable commercial space for businesses like Vanguard Packaging.

Here's a novel way to slash your business expenses in half: Relocate 100 feet underground.

In the Midwest, many businesses have done just that.

In states like Missouri, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, there's a growing number of firms doing business in subterranean spaces that were once mines. Starting in the 1960s, these spaces were rehabilitated for commercial use.

SubTropolis, in Kansas City, Mo., is a well-known example.

The underground business complex was an active limestone mine in the 1940s, owned by real estate firm Hunt Midwest. As mining started to taper off, it left a vast network of empty caves.

"In the 1960s came the 'a-ha!' moment," said Ora Reynolds, president and CEO of Hunt Midwest. "These spaces could be reused."

Since then, Hunt Midwest has gradually transformed the defunct spaces.

"Six million square feet of it is ready, and we have room to build out another 8 million square feet based on demand," said Dick Ringer, SubTropolis' general manager.

Today, 1,600 people to work at one of the 52 businesses that lease space in SubTropolis' space, including tech and manufacturing firms, consumer products companies and auto firms.

Employees enter SubTropolis through one of 19 entrances that accommodate cars and trucks. This also facilitates cross-ventillation of natural air, although tenants can also add air conditioning and dehumidifiers.

Today, auto customization work is routinely done at SubTropolis.

Family-owned Paris Brothers, a specialty foods company, has two of its businesses in SubTropolis.

"The 55% to 65% humidity is ideal to store our unroasted coffee," said co-owner Joseph Paris. His company also stores 600 cheese varieties underground. "When we say that these are cave-aged cheese, they literally are," he said.